Saturday, May 8, 2010

First year of law school is over, and now I can get back to doing what I do best, not taking law school classes. I must say that the experience from going from a BCS school to a mid major had its pluses and minuses. The biggest negative was sitting in a what was a supped up high school gym instead of in a huge college basketball arena. But the best luxury of attending a game at a private school is not having to pay for catered food. Its the type of treatment you could only get sitting front row at an NBA game.

Speaking of the NBA, you'll be surprised what watching playoff basketball while studying would do to your grades. Nonetheless I got a chance to watch a good number of games and had a few observations I just wanted to throw out there.The Revenge Flagrant FoulThe playoff is the only time of year, where you'll see a player tackle another layer for what went down on the opposite end. In the Mavs-Spurs series you saw this a lot, with so many vets in the game.

There's Nothing Wrong with Lebron's ArmDid you watch Lebron dominate last night's game? He even did a reverse alley hoop dunk and needed to dunk just so his head won't hit the backboard. The worst about this hoopla is that its overshadowing the brilliant play of Rondo, who at times is the best player on the court even with Lebron. The game is about adjustments, and Mike Brown and the Cavs are the worst adjusting team in basketball. Their only game plan is to give the ball to Lebron, you can't really make changes when that's your only game plan.

What the Cavs hope for each night is that someone else will step up. When they do then all is good. When not, all hell breaks loose. Again, wouldn't a lot of this be solved if Lebron had a low post game.

Antwan Jamison is UnreliableI watched him play for years in D.C. and he's the last person I want taking a shot. While those awkward shots may seem cool when they're going in, many times they're not. Really, Jamison is a glorified put back man. He's a great rebounder, but having him do anything more is not a good idea. Supposedly he was supposed to play Lebron's Robin. But in D.C. he was part of a never given secondary duties, so why would he be able to handle them now?

Kobe is no longer KobeAs a diehard Kobe fan, I'm not to happy with his play right now. The injuries have caught up with my boy. When your fingers are broken, your knees are shot, and ankles are killing you, as a player you are regulated to the ground. Then you have to hope that your fingers are coordinated enough to direct the ball at the basket. Kobe's best shots right now come when he's in the paint, near the free throw line, and from three point land. From these areas he's really not going to be contested, thus a better shot is available. From watching his game his worst shot are 15 foot jumpers where he's most likely to be guarded by a larger player. This year, its not so much of a problem because of the Lakers set of big men.

Speaking of big men, the brilliance of the Gasol trade wasn't that it automatically made them contenders. The real brilliance was that it was the centerpiece of a Lakers team without the magic of Kobe. Secondly, it made Bynum expendable, and at anytime they can increase his game by threatening a trade. Imagine if there were nights where he believed that he could go from L.A. to Milwaukee.

D.Fish Should Not be StartingIts pretty clear that he should becoming off the bench because he can't guard speedy quick point guards. Phil's loyalty is preventing the growth of Farmer and Brown and costing his team precious rest time.